The Lions lost to the Czech Republic with clear results. Jukka Jalonen failed to appear in front of the media.
Tampere
Lions experienced an exceptionally ugly backstabbing on Saturday night in the Nokia Arena. Leijonat, who played fumblingly, lost to the Czech Republic in their second match of the Karelian tournament with goals 7–3.
The lions have not experienced a similar robbery in a while. The last time Leijonat conceded seven goals was on February 11, 2017, when the Czech Republic beat Finland 7–1 in the Sweden tournament.
In the entire 2000s, before Saturday, Leijonat had only conceded at least seven of their own four times in an A national match.
The head coach Jukka Jalonen left the arena for a long time after the TV interview. Jalonen was supposed to appear in front of the media later, but it turned out differently. Jalonen made the oharis.
“They were making videos and preparing for the next game,” announced the reason for this being the communications director of the Ice Hockey Association Henna Malmberg.
11,159 spectators watched Saturday’s smashing in the Nokia Arena, but a large crowd left the game at the end of the third period.
The tournament in the opening match on Thursday, the Lions stylishly beat Switzerland 4–0. After one day off, a completely different lion team was seen in the box at the Nokia Arena.
The Lions had a rough start against the Czech Republic. Downright sleepy.
The Czech Republic pushed for a three-goal runaway already around the middle of the opening set. The scoreboard showed the Czech Republic 3–0 in 12:45. At this point, the Lions had not yet had a single shot on the Czech goal.
For the one who saved the first international match of his career Roope Tapose Saturday evening was pitch black. HIFK’s 22-year-old number one keeper let in three of the first seven shots of the Czech brothers.
Roope Taponen had to dig pucks out of his goal.
It’s pointless to blame Tapos too much for the tournament host’s horror. The team that defended in front left the debutant sleepless at the beginning of the match.
Especially in the first half of the match, the Lions’ play was marked by weak puck decisions and marking mistakes, which the Czech Republic dully immunized against.
Niko Huuhtanen After the 1–3 narrow goal, the tempo changed. Leijonat took command of the game and got level before the middle of the second period.
Lapa playing hot Antti Suomela already scored his fourth goal of the tournament. The first keeper of Ilves who saved the Czech goal Jakub Malek gets to take the goal. In addition to Taponen, Malek also did not look particularly confident in the match.
The lions’ period of charm was crowned by a 3–3 equalizing goal scored by Eemil Erholtz. That was the end of the Finnish celebrations.
In special situations was a big difference in favor of the Czech Republic on Saturday. The Czech Republic took a 4–3 lead with its second power play goal of the match, when David Tomasek hit the puck on the top plate.
Just over a minute later, there was another fire behind Taponen. Lynx attacker Simon Stransky inoculated the Leijoni’s lopsided playing in their own and silenced the audience of the Nokia Arena with his 5–3 goal.
Taponen missed five of the first 15 shots behind his back. In total, Taponen made 20 saves and conceded six goals. The save percentage in the debut match was a weak 76.92.
In the third period, Jalonen did a surprising trick by taking Taponen out of the goal, even though there were more than seven minutes left on the clock.
The reason behind the decision was the Czech Republic’s lead in 52:25. Leijonat tried to narrow down first with six against four and later with six against five, but without a result.
The Czech Republic sealed the Finns’ ugly Loppulukemat into an empty net a good five minutes before the end.
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